Immersive environments have been used extensively in product development, oil exploration, and academic environments. These environments often use simple hand tracking along with 3D visualization to understand human factors issues such as how a user interacts with a specific situation. These immersive environments allow users to see a design in something approximating a real world scale.
Interest in gesture-based Augmented Reality (AR) systems has increased significantly in the last few years with the arrival of the Nintendo Wii, the Apple iPhone, and the Xbox Natal/Kinect. These systems combine creative development tools, sensors, processors, user interfaces, media servers, and displays.
AR systems also usually include a camera and a display; although the function of the camera can vary. For example, in an application for controlling a car, the camera sees a card held in a user's hand and a 3D representation of a car is keyed onto the card. The card functions as a navigation tool and the car's movement corresponds to the card's movements. In another application, the camera shows the viewer a picture of a particular place, say a restaurant, with information, like a restaurant rating tag, superimposed over the place. Similar tagging may be used in video environments as well.
The commercialization of sensors along with the arrival of these different modes of interaction creates an opportunity to change the fixed relationships between individuals and their surroundings. Sensors in a hallway control light and temperature. Sensors in a phone tell a user they are close to a friend in a crowded train station. Sensors in a office detect a new document on a user's desk and search available resources for a digital version of the document and related information. The integration of these capabilities into features and functions that users will demand involves a complex set of actions involving hardware and software.